The Alchemy of the Rewrite
The alchemy of the rewrite
open.substack.com
the essence of the process is revision.
John McPhee • Draft No. 4
The key to overcoming this precondition is to make writing a multi-pass process. Visual art is multi-pass: artists start with a rough sketch that captures the general idea for their composition. Then they go through and do a more detailed sketch, turning the rough lines into recognizable features, fiddling with proportions and placement until each ... See more
With each rewrite I try to make what I have written tighter, stronger and more precise, eliminating every element that’s not doing useful work.